Wednesday 21 April 2010

SPRING IS HERE AT LAST

What a difference a month makes.This month has been a very busy one for me on the shooting front.I had a call from a farmers freind who had got a few rabbits wreking his garden.He asked if i could pop round and assess the situation and advise him on how he could get rid of them.The problem was they were coming from the fields that border his garden,he had rabbit fencing up but it had only been dug in about 6 inches so they had gone under.I took a walk around the boundary and found the main run they had made,it was in some rough ground at the bottom of his garden.I had advised him to set some snares as there was some good runs but he had cats so he didn`t want those getting cought.The other option was to shoot them with an air rifle,this he agreed to and as i had it in the car i decided to stop on and see what was going to come in for the last couple of hours.
I settled myself behind a couple of old pallets and it was only 20 minutes wait when the first rabbit showed,it was only a young one but as its a rabbit it had to go.Nothing more showed in the next half hour so i took a look over the fence and seen a few young rabbits feeding outside a small warren on the farmers side.A quick chat to farmers freind and i had permission to shoot what was in that warren.
I tucked myself behind the fence 30 yards from the warren and got 90 minutes shooting before i had to pack up.In total i got 6 young rabbits and a smile from the owner.Hopefully it will lead to more shooting as there is mum and dad to get yet and the farmer has more rabbits to shoot.If i keep the freind happy who knows i might get the bordering farm too.

In the week the sun came out to produce a very nice morning,me and dad decided to go for a walk around the woods and see what was about.It didn`t take long for us to both be in the action as we seen and shot a few squirrels.The first wood produced  two for dad who takes no prisoners with his shotgun now.

on the way to the second wood dad noticed a squirrel in the plantation,it was mooching around a log pile so i sneaked upto the fence and rested the rapid on a post,a quick look and i had the scope on him in seconds,a nice shot spun the squirrel of the logs and number three was in the bag.



The next hour seen one more squirrel hit the floor, i managed to see before dad and took it right out the top of a conifer.

It was getting late afternoon now so we decided to wait up and get some pigeons coming in.Dad took up the front end of the wood  with the shogun and any that went passed him and decided to land in the far end i would have.I could hear dad having a few shot and nothing showed for me untill at least an hour.A magpie had come in the oaks and was bussy chattering away,unaware i was 40 yards from him he just kept hopping from tree to tree till he was 25 yards away,he was looking about so it got on him quick and took a nice clean headshot.

Another 15 minutes later i head dad take a shot and three pigeons came my way.I had the gun up ready to get the crosshairs on the first that gave a clear shot,a nice shot to the neck sent the pigeon head first and thumping the wood floor.

A squirrel in the last 10 minutes proved the last shot for me so i decided to go and see how dad got on.He had four pigeons when i got to him so he had a bit of shooting to finish the day off.


We have also been around the paddocks ,fox control is on the agenda and i have been busy mole trapping on one of my permissions,all will be added soon.

cheers eddie..